Day -2//Chemo

I can’t believe we are at Day -2 already! 

This morning Gaby helped me apply a giant tegaderm bandage/sticker over my PICC line so I could shower and get some of this iodine solution (or whatever it is) off of my skin. It looked like I got a horrible spray tan. I had to make it a quick shower because we met up with the two other patients who were also able to do their stem cell collection yesterday for our 3rd round of chemo. I lucked out with not all of us being there for chemo in the morning because I finally got to be in one of the real chemo rooms. The other two days they set me up in one of the doctor’s room and put a big tv on the desk and brought in a recliner and it was fine. It did the job. But today I felt a little spoiled being in one of the designated chemo rooms complete with my own bathroom and a couch for Gaby. I’ll probably be back to the office room tomorrow for our final chemo so I enjoyed it as much as you can getting chemo! Getting chemo today with my PICC line was awesome. Instead of having the nurses dig and fish for a vein they just connected the lines coming from the medicine to one of the tubes coming out of my neck and ‘click’ it started. Easy peasy. 

So far my worst symptom out of all of this has been the bone pain from the Filgrastim shots. Chemo has been a breeze for me! During chemo I got “wasabi nose” again and I felt really tired, but I’ll take that over vomiting and diarrhea and all of the nasty side effects that some people experience. 

Wasabi nose, a term used to describe the nasopharyngeal discomfort experienced during cyclophosphamide infusions, is a rare phenomenon, previously described in case reports of adult oncology patients typically receiving high-dose chemotherapy regimens.

 ‘wasabi nose’ (the burning, painful feeling that results from eating sushi with wasabi)

After chemo we came back to the apartment and have just been hanging out. I’m getting in my 3 liters of water to keep my bladder flushed out and to keep me from getting too cozy on the couch from having to get up every 20 minutes to use the bathroom. 

Sunday will be Day 0: transplant day! I’ll also be shaving my head that day after I get my picc line removed. And guess who else is shaving their head….my dad! For those of you who haven’t had the honor of meeting my dad, he has been sporting a long mullet for most of my life and always has it in a pony tail or braid. It suits him. He wouldn’t even cut it off when he married my step mom. He could not be convinced to change his hair and we all just accepted it as his trademark hair. Hey, who am I to judge hair styles?! Here are some pictures showcasing my Dad’s hair and my “brave” choice of hair color. I say you can pull off any hair style if you just have the confidence. Hopefully I can have the confidence to pull off my shaved head!

On a walk in Palm Bay, FL. Check out that long hair on “California mike” 🙂

Is that Hulk Hogan?! No that’s my dad ❤️

Sporting that pony tail on my wedding day!

All it takes to pull off hair like this is confidence and an incredible hair stylist!